If we said about an investment, another thing that is important and come along with investment is an investment risk. The Taisei Marine and Fire Insurance (TMFI) is an interesting case study about a failure investment. The Taisei Marine and Fire Insurance (TMFI) Company had huge property and casualty business in Japan. It also had a huge volume of inward reinsurance premiums, most of those came from a US reinsurance pool managed by Fortress Re. TMFI company together with Nissan Fire & Marine and Chiyoda Fire & Marine Insurance was part of the Fortress Re pool. Fortress Re pool is the reinsurance pool manager that response for securing inward reinsurance business that included aviation, marine and other reinsurance products.
Later on, there are accidents that lead TMFI into bad situation and bankrupt lastly. In September, 11th 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, this accident affects many groups, especially in Fortress Re pool. All four planes that crashed on the World Trade Center attack are reinsured in the Fortress Re pool. This situation make TMFI company bankruptcy because they unable to provide sufficient reinsurance protection to this major event. The main reasons for the TFMI’s bankruptcy are the collaborated companies’ lack of skills in management of Fortress Re and their limited comprehension of liabilities associated with accounting procedures for risk transfer in the pool of Fortress Re. It seems that they trust Fortress Re’s management team to control mostly entire of information on risks in the portfolio.
In conclusion, from the situation that TFMI did not beware about a business risk, thus, TFMI was not protected from large losses. Consequently, TFMI’s solvency margin was not enough to cover catastrophic reinsurance claims in a World Trade Center case, as indeed happened on September 11th. To avoid bankruptcy, TFMI should to manage a business risk for maintenance their company. TFMI bankruptcy was an example of how a company overlooked the potential risk of reinsurance.